A$9.50 flat brokerage on ASX shares with direct CHESS sponsorship makes Selfwealth a clean long-term platform, though international trades face higher friction.
Written by StockEmber Team · Updated Oct 15, 2026
Researched with AI assistance and verified by our editors
This Selfwealth review looks at the A$9.50 flat brokerage, CHESS sponsorship and FX costs that matter most for long-term ASX investors.
This part of our Selfwealth review covers the company's history. Selfwealth was founded in Melbourne in 2012 by Andrew Ward and pioneered flat-fee share trading in Australia. It listed on the ASX in November 2017 under the ticker SWF. In May 2025 Singapore-based digital wealth platform Syfe completed its A$65 million acquisition, Selfwealth was delisted, and it now operates as a privately held subsidiary headquartered in Melbourne under its own ASIC licence (AFSL 421789).
Licensed & regulated
ASIC
Money protected
A$1m per claimant per event (cash sub-cap A$250k) NGF
You own the shares
Real ownership
Track record
14 yrs · Private
AU · NGF
A$1m per claimant per event (cash sub-cap A$250k)
Commission
A$9.50 flat per trade (ASX); US$9.50 flat per trade (US)
Account minimum
No account-opening minimum, but ASX rules require a first purchase of at least A$500 per stock
Est. 10-year cost
~$1,536
Markets
Stocks · ETFs · Bonds · REITs
Fractional
Synthetic/Not stated
Tax wrappers
Australia: SMSF (Self-Managed Super Fund)
Long-term buy-and-hold investors trading Australian shares and ETFs who value direct legal ownership through CHESS sponsorship.
Active traders who need advanced charting or wide global market access beyond Australia and the US, and anyone who regularly invests small amounts or converts currency often.
Holds its own ASIC licence (AFSL 421789), so ASX trading sits under Australian law, though US trading runs through overseas partners.
Selfwealth Pty Ltd operates under Australian Financial Services Licence 421789, issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). For ASX trading, Selfwealth acts as your agent while FNZ Custodians (Australia) Pty Ltd, an ASIC licensee (AFSL 507452) and ASX market participant, executes, clears and settles your trades, so your legal recourse stays within Australian law. You can check the licence yourself on ASIC's Financial Services Register before you open an account.
International trading works differently. When you add US trading, you also become a customer of an overseas-facing partner. Accounts that added international trading before August 2026 are served by PhillipCapital Limited (AFSL 246827, with custody through its Singapore affiliate), and new international accounts from August 2026 are served by Alpaca Securities LLC, a US broker-dealer. Your US holdings therefore sit outside the ASX CHESS framework.
ASX shares are CHESS-sponsored under your own HIN, while US shares are held by overseas custodians.
Selfwealth provides CHESS sponsorship (the ASX's Clearing House Electronic Subregister System) for Australian shares, ETFs and ASX-listed bonds. When you buy on the ASX, the holding is registered in your name under your own Holder Identification Number (HIN), so you are the legal and beneficial owner rather than Selfwealth. FNZ Custodians (Australia) Pty Ltd acts as your CHESS sponsoring participant and handles settlement.
Because the holdings sit under your own HIN, moving them to another CHESS broker is done with a broker-to-broker transfer form, without selling. Selfwealth's fee schedule lists no charge for this type of transfer, although the receiving broker may charge its own fee, and an A$27.50 fee applies where a transfer changes the legal owner.
Flat A$9.50 brokerage per ASX trade and no custody fees, though the AUD to USD spread adds about 0.84% on US investing.
Selfwealth charges a flat brokerage fee of A$9.50 per trade on Australian shares, ETFs and bonds, whatever the order size. At our baseline rate of 1.4064 AUD per USD, that is about US$6.75 per order. For lump sums of US$2,000 or US$5,000 the flat fee stays small, but on a US$300 monthly contribution it takes roughly 2.25% of each purchase, so order size matters. The ASX also requires the first purchase of any stock to be at least A$500.
Access to ASX, Cboe Australia and US exchanges, with no direct route to European, UK or most Asian markets.
Selfwealth gives access to Australian markets and the United States. On the Australian side you can trade more than 1,800 ordinary shares and more than 270 ETFs listed on the ASX and Cboe Australia, along with A-REITs and ASX-listed bonds such as exchange-traded Treasury bonds and corporate bonds. US access covers more than 5,000 stocks and more than 3,000 ETFs on the NYSE and Nasdaq. There is no direct route to European, UK or Japanese exchanges.
Selfwealth keeps separate AUD and USD cash accounts, so proceeds from US sales stay in US dollars until you choose to convert them back. Hong Kong (HKEX) trading is available only to select customers, mainly those whose international trading was set up before August 2026, and newer accounts are US-only.
Simple web and mobile apps cover core trading and portfolio tracking, but charting and analysis tools stay basic.
Selfwealth offers a desktop web platform and dedicated iOS and Android apps built for straightforward share and ETF investing rather than active day trading. You can build watchlists, place orders, track holdings and set price alerts, and Auto-Invest lets you schedule recurring purchases that run as market orders after the market opens.
ASX orders go to lit exchange order books with one brokerage fee per order, but US orders carry disclosed payment for order flow.
ASX orders are routed through FNZ Custodians (Australia) Pty Ltd, acting in its market-participant capacity, to the ASX or Cboe Australia order books during normal trading hours (10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Sydney time). Selfwealth does not state any payment for order flow arrangement for ASX orders. Cboe Australia accepts day orders only.
US orders are different. Alpaca Securities, which clears US trades for newer international accounts, discloses that it receives payment for order flow from market centers. Selfwealth does not itself publish venue or price-improvement data.
Order types are basic. On the ASX you can use limit, market-to-limit and stop-loss orders, and on US markets limit, market and stop-limit sell orders. Brokerage of A$9.50 is charged once per order however many stages it fills in, even if only part of the order fills. US pre-market trading runs from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM Eastern, and accounts that set up US trading from 13 August 2026 can trade 24 hours a day, five days a week. Trailing stops and OCO orders are not offered.
Supports individual, joint, company, trust and SMSF accounts, with US tax paperwork handled at set-up.
Selfwealth supports Individual, Joint, Company, Trust, minor and Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) accounts at the same flat brokerage rate. For Australians building a retirement portfolio through an SMSF, trading under your fund's own HIN keeps its assets separate and straightforward to report.
Free AUD deposits and withdrawals by bank transfer, with separate AUD and USD cash accounts.
Funding is simple through Australian banking rails. Bank transfers to your Selfwealth account arrive within minutes if your bank supports Osko, and BPAY or non-Osko transfers typically take one to two business days. Selfwealth charges no deposit or withdrawal fees, and it accepts only electronic deposits, not cheques or branch transfers.
Withdrawals go only to your nominated bank account in Australian dollars. A withdrawal submitted before 2:00 PM Sydney or Melbourne time is available the next business day, and requests made on weekends or public holidays wait for the next business day.
Selfwealth does not accept direct international currency transfers. To trade US shares you move money from your AUD cash account to your USD account, with a spread of US$0.006 per A$1 built into the exchange rate, and transfers between cash accounts can take one to four business days. Funds deposited by Osko need an extra business day before they can be converted. USD proceeds from US sales stay in your USD account until you transfer them back.
Company data from Refinitiv and community portfolio scores, but no in-house equity research team.
Research on Selfwealth centers on stock data supplied by Refinitiv. All clients get a limited stock analysis screen, while detailed multi-page stock reports with scores on key business metrics and peer comparisons are available only to Premium members. These suit passive investors checking a company's health, but screening is limited compared with specialist research platforms.
The platform's proprietary angle is community data. Selfwealth's SafetyRating and WealthCheck score draw on portfolio data shared in the community, and you can see how others are positioned. This gives useful context but is not research in the usual sense.
Live chat 24 hours a day, five days a week, plus phone support in Melbourne business hours.
Selfwealth supports clients through live chat, a help center, email requests and phone. Live chat runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, and phone support for retail clients is available Monday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Melbourne time. Email and form requests are answered within about two business days.
Public user reviews are generally positive about live chat speed, though weekend coverage is limited and waits can lengthen on Australian public holidays and around the end of the financial year.
If a complaint cannot be resolved directly, Selfwealth is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA, member number 30405), an independent scheme that can make binding decisions.
Selfwealth is available only to Australian residents aged 18 and over who have an Australian residential address and are Australian tax residents. Foreign tax residents and non-residents are not supported.
In this Selfwealth review, Selfwealth by Syfe comes out as a straightforward, CHESS-sponsored platform for building a domestic share and ETF portfolio in Australia. The flat A$9.50 pricing suits patient investors who trade larger parcels, with no custody drag across a multi-year horizon. US trading adds an FX spread of about 0.84%, overseas custody and disclosed payment for order flow, and cash earns no interest, but holding ASX shares under your own HIN keeps it a dependable choice for Australian wealth builders.
This Selfwealth review suggests the platform is right for you if you want direct ownership of ASX shares and usually invest sums above A$1,000 per order, since it gives clean execution without ongoing account fees. If you want wide international diversification, fractional shares or very small automated contributions, consider other platforms.
Selfwealth is owned by Syfe, a digital wealth management company based in Singapore. It was listed on the ASX (ASX: SWF) until Syfe completed its acquisition in May 2025, and it now operates as a private subsidiary under its own Australian financial services licence (AFSL 421789).
Both brokers offer CHESS-sponsored ASX trading under your own HIN. Stake charges A$3 per trade up to A$30,000 and 0.01% above that, while Selfwealth charges a flat A$9.50 whatever the size. Selfwealth only becomes cheaper on single ASX trades above roughly A$95,000.
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Selfwealth was listed on the ASX until May 2025, when Singapore-based Syfe completed its acquisition and the company became the privately held Selfwealth by Syfe. Private status means less public financial reporting than a listed company. Client cash is held in a trust account with ANZ, and Selfwealth is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). ASX trades also fall under the National Guarantee Fund (NGF), which compensates for certain market participant failures but is capped at A$1,000,000 per claimant per event, with a A$250,000 sub-cap on cash, and does not extend to US holdings.
Bottom line: A domestic ASIC-licensed broker with a clear regulatory footing for ASX trading, though US trading adds overseas partners and sits outside the NGF.
“Selfwealth holds its own AFSL and uses an ASIC-licensed market participant for ASX settlement, but US holdings rely on separate overseas custody arrangements.”
US shares work differently. They are held by Selfwealth's international partners, PhillipCapital (custody through its Singapore affiliate) for accounts that added international trading before August 2026 and Alpaca Securities LLC for newer accounts, rather than on the ASX register. You remain the beneficial owner, but you do not get CHESS-style direct registration, and moving US holdings out is costly. Selfwealth's help-center fee page lists A$110 per stock for a PhillipCapital transfer, while its Financial Services Guide dated 14 October 2026 lists A$138 per transfer, so confirm the current fee before you move anything. Through Alpaca, transfers cost US$55 to US$150 depending on the method.
Bottom line: Strong ownership protection for ASX holdings through CHESS, offset by overseas custody and high exit fees on US shares.
“CHESS sponsorship removes broker-level counterparty exposure on ASX holdings, a structural advantage that few other custody models in the Australian market can match.”
There are no account opening, custody, inactivity, deposit, withdrawal or closure fees on a standard account. An optional Premium subscription costs A$29 a month or A$240 a year and adds live ASX pricing and detailed stock reports. Selfwealth pays no interest on cash balances, which matters if you hold uninvested funds.
US brokerage is a flat US$9.50 per trade, with a promotional US$0 period running to 31 October 2026. US sells also carry small regulatory fees.
The bigger US cost is currency conversion. Selfwealth builds a spread of US$0.006 per A$1 into its AUD to USD rate, which it labels 60 basis points but which works out to about US$0.60 per A$100 converted, or roughly 0.84% at our baseline rate. Converting once and reusing the USD balance limits how often you pay it. For accounts served by PhillipCapital, US dividends also carry a processing fee of 1.5% of the net dividend, capped at US$1.50.
What you will pay over 10 years
~$1,536over 10 years
Commission drag
~$1,150
$9.5 × 121 buys
Custody + annual fee
~$0
no fee charged
FX conversion
~$386
0.84% × $46,000
Total
~$1,536
Our ten-year benchmark model assumes a US$10,000 initial lump sum followed by US$300 monthly contributions across 121 trades, investing US$46,000 in total. The cost figure shown above models US investing, because it is the case where currency conversion applies: brokerage of US$9.50 per trade comes to US$1,149.50 over 121 trades, and the AUD to USD spread of about 0.84% adds roughly US$386.40 across the US$46,000 deployed, giving an estimated ten-year total of about US$1,535.90. With no custody or annual account fees, holding costs add nothing. For pure ASX purchases made in Australian dollars there is no currency conversion, so the ten-year cost is the brokerage figure alone: A$9.50 per trade, or about US$816.75 (A$1,149.50) over 121 trades.
Bottom line: Very economical for larger ASX lump sums, but less forgiving for small regular contributions and for frequent US currency conversion.
“The flat A$9.50 fee gives a clear cost ceiling on large ASX trades, while the FX spread is the main ongoing cost for US investors.”
Product choice is limited to listed securities. There are no fractional shares, mutual funds, options or other derivatives. Dividend reinvestment for ASX shares runs through company share registries where the issuer offers a plan. Selfwealth also offers managed investment portfolios (Cash+ and Income+) as a separate service.
Bottom line: A solid fit for building an ASX and US core portfolio, but not for investors who need wider geographic diversification or fractional investing.
“Market access stops at Australia and the United States for most clients, which suits the typical dual-market preference of Australian retail investors.”
A distinctive feature is its community layer. Selfwealth's SafetyRating and WealthCheck score draw on portfolio data shared in the Selfwealth community, which adds peer context but is not a substitute for deeper analysis. Charting remains basic, and live ASX pricing is part of the paid Premium subscription.
Trade and transaction reports can be exported as CSV, and Selfwealth can email contract notes to Sharesight automatically, which simplifies record-keeping at tax time. Annual statements are available each financial year.
Bottom line: A functional, accessible investing platform designed for disciplined portfolio building rather than rapid trade execution or deep charting.
“Selfwealth prioritises simple portfolio tracking and community benchmarking over active trader tooling.”
Bottom line: Clean, transparent execution on the ASX order book, balanced by basic order types and payment for order flow on the US side.
“ASX execution is straightforward, but US order handling depends on the clearing partner and its disclosed order-routing practices.”
US trading requires a W-8BEN form, which is completed as part of US set-up and supports the 15% Australia-US treaty withholding rate on US dividends instead of the default 30%.
ASX dividends are paid through the share registry that manages each company, such as Computershare or Link Market Services. You can have cash paid to your bank account or join a company's dividend reinvestment plan where one is offered. Annual statements and transaction reports are available for each Australian financial year.
Bottom line: Strong account-structure coverage for Australian SMSFs, trusts and companies, with sensible US tax set-up and annual reporting.
“Direct HIN registration lets Australian investors manage dividends and company reinvestment plans directly with the share registries.”
Bottom line: Smooth, low-cost domestic funding, though currency transfers are slower and carry a spread.
“Osko makes domestic funding quick, while the USD account gives control over when you convert, but conversion timing needs planning.”
Educational content includes articles, product explainers and weekly market wrap-ups. The platform has no gamification, so you will not see confetti, countdown timers or trading incentives built to drive turnover.
Bottom line: Basic Refinitiv data and community benchmarking suit long-term ETF investors, but active stock pickers will want more.
“Community scores add helpful context but cannot replace independent balance-sheet research.”
Bottom line: Reliable local support with chat, phone and email, though there is no weekend coverage.
“Extended live chat hours are a strength, but weekend gaps are noticeable during volatile markets.”
No. Selfwealth does not pay interest on cash held in AUD, USD or HKD. Client cash is held in a trust account with ANZ, and it stays available for trading.
Sell your open positions or transfer your CHESS-sponsored shares to another broker with a broker-to-broker transfer form. Withdraw the remaining cash to your linked bank account, converting any USD back to AUD first, and then contact customer support to request closure. Selfwealth does not charge an account closure fee.
Yes. You complete a broker-to-broker transfer form with your existing HIN and proof of identity. Issuer-sponsored shares must also be moved onto your Selfwealth HIN before Selfwealth can sell them. The average purchase price is not carried across, so keep your own cost-base records.
